sea pack convention at roughly the same time she wouldn't get a dime. is this why she chose this one or am i just too cynical? >> i don't know, keith. i mean, if she had stayed in alaska and served the public interests in her term out as governor she'd have gotten no money at all either. so she is clearly part of that entrepreneurial spirit that this party movement is seeking here. she has proven pretty well adept at raising money for herself if not for anyone else. >> but again, her presence and the price that going to see her talk, which is i think what you do, you don't go to listen, you go to see her talk. >> right. >> is $349 plus $200 to attend the rest of the convention. if you didn't go to the convention and you saved your $549 wouldn't you have just addressed most of the problems that the tea party people are complaining about in the first place? >> yeah. that is more than the price of a cup of tea isn't it? it's a strange way to build a movement to put money in the pockets of sarah palin. she does have a big family. >> back to rachel for a second.

this is kind of a badge of honor here isn't it? i mean, if she is the next hillary clinton or what? and she is listening by the way to whatever your response is. >> you know, rachel's numbers and her show speaks for itself but in case she doesn't want to speak for herself let's do it for her. it's a badge of honor to be something of a stimulant to a group of over stimulated people. maybe they should have decaffeinated tea. >> they asked ed schultz to run for senate. rachel is a stocking horse for the tea party people. matthews in pennsylvania. and for crying out loud harold ford was asked if he might run for something. you know, what do i get in the deal? >> there is a sports commissioner's post waiting for you. >> like i said, what do i get in the deal? richard wolffe of msnbc, author of "renegade" as always great thanks. >> thank you, keith. >> that's "countdown" for this the 2,433rd day since the previous president declared mission accomplished in iraq.

with more on that flag wearing response to detroit by the gop ladies and gentlemen here is the most dangerous woman in america, david letterman's special guest, rachel maddow. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, keith. i can't tell you, i mean it was flattering enough to be singled out by the tea party nation as their liberal troll number one. it is also flattering to hear you and richard speculate on my import to the tea party moment. a very big day for me. >> you're a symbol. >> a snare drum at least. thank you. appreciate it. thanks to you at home for staying with us for the next hour. big show tonight. tonight president obama's response to the underpants bomber and then the republicans' response to the president. there is strange new news about uganda's kill the gays bill which we've been covering for i

guess months now and the rachel maddow show for the first time ever will be dabbling in 3-d tv. this hour we've got a very big show ahead as i say. we begin with president obama's much anticipated and ultimately much delayed speech today on the attempted terrorist attack on christmas day. mr. obama was originally scheduled to speak at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. late this morning that start time was pushed back to 3:00 p.m. eastern time. at 3:00 p.m., when that rolled around we were told instead to expect the speech an hour and a half later. then at 4:34 p.m. finally president obama entered the white house state dining room to address the nation. >> it appears this incident was not the fault of a single individual or organization but rather a systemic failure across organizations and agencies. i am less interested in passing out blame than i am in learning from and correcting these mistakes to make us safer. for ultimately, the buck stops with me.

as president i have a solemn responsibility to protect our nation and our people. and when the system fails, it is my responsibility. >> moments after the president was done speaking, his administration's official review of what went wrong was released. now, much of what's in this report we've known for days. the information was available. we had it. but the analysis wasn't done. the dots weren't connected. it was a broad failure of the counterterrorism system. the system, itself, is not fundamentally broken. what the review points to is a series of human errors. and while this detail is not included in the report specifically, nbc news has learned tonight of a startlingly small human error that allowed umar farouk abdul mutallab to board that u.s. bound plane on christmas day. a senior state department official is telling nbc news tonight that a simple, very simple misspelling of abdulmutallab's name was the reason no one realized he had a visa to enter the united states

which should have set alarm bells ringing. according to this official one letter was dropped from mr. abdulmutallab's name. when an employee cross checked his name against a government data base. this happened back on november 20th. had mr. abdulmutallab's name been entered correctly, officials apparently would have seen that he was classified as a possible terrorist and then the fact that he also had a visa to enter the united states would have kicked him over into what they call a 3 b classification. a 3 b classification would have kept him from boarding the plane. one letter in his name. the fact that the failures in this case have been narrowed down to that level of detail gives you some idea of how intense the security reviews have been over the last few days. in his remarks today president obama also vowed to redouble u.s. efforts to defeat al qaeda. >> here at home we will strengthen our defenses, but we will not seccumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and

values that we cherish as americans. because great and proud nations don't hunker down and hide behind walls of suspicion and mistrust. that is exactly what our adversaries want and so long as i am president we will never hand them that victory. >> that is exactly what our adversaries want. and from what wean of our adversaries that is what they want. you know what else they want? they want us to, and i quote, bleed until bankruptcy. you might remember back in 2004, november first, november first, 2004, al jazeera released the full transcript of a videotaped message from osama bin laden that they had played portions of a few days earlier. the state now came out just before, immediately before the 2004 elections in this country. this is the tape john kerry says may have cost him that presidential election. in that message from 2004 osama bin laden stated very clearly what al qaeda wanted to do. he said, quote, we are continuing this policy in bleeding america to the point of

bankruptcy. we alongside the mujahideen bled russia for ten years until it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat. talking about afghanistan. this could be what osama bin laden wanted us to think his goal was. this could be misinformation. but this strategic message is even with that caveat worth considering. he continued, quote. all we have to do is send two mujahideen to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al qaeda in order to make generals race there to cause america to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving anything of note other than some benefits for their private corporations. osama bin laden in 2004 said his tactical goal was to distract the united states from pursuing our own interests. and force us instead to spend ourselves into oblivion in a futile effort to try to stop anyone from using terrorist tactics against the u.s. and bin

laden said at the time delayed were pretty delighted with the way president bush had chosen to fight them. quote, it's been easy for us to provoke and bait this administration. the darkness of black gold blurred bush's vision and insight so the iraq war went ahead, the death toll rose, the american economy bled, and bush became embroiled in the swamps of iraq that threatened his future. that's osama bin laden speaking in 2004. part of asymetric warfare, small force taking on a large force is the small force always wants to force the big guy to fight on the little guy's terms. forces large and small of course tend to win when they fight on their own terms. even in sports, right? university of alabama would very much like to have the ball as much as possible in heisman trophy winner mark ingram's hands. those would be the terms of the university of alabama on the football field. anybody playing them, say texas, wants to fight on their own terms which tonight at least include keeping mark ingram buried under a large pile of linemen at all times. president obama clearly wants to

fight this asymetric war against al qaeda on american terms not on al qaeda's terms. but when you listen to what their terms are, forcing american generals to race across the globe, bleeding america to the point of bankruptcy, distracting us from our own interests and forcing us to address the provocation that they provide, are we still fighting on their terms like we did in the bush administration that so delight themd or are we fighting on our own terms now? >> our new approach in afghanistan is likely to cost us roughly $30 billion for the military this year. even before the christmas attack we increased investments in homeland security and aviation security. this includes an additional $1 billion in new systems and technologies that we need to protect our airports. >> the president went on today to describe even further technological investments he wants the nation to look into making in terms of our transportation security. in 2004, osama bin laden was delighted with how the fight against america was going. how much military and economic

pain america is willing to inflict upon ourselves in response to their relatively cheap provocations. five and a half years later is president obama still following the al qaeda plan of how to deal with terrorism? are we still fighting on their terms? or is there a way to respond on our own terms in a way that's both effective and that prevents them from getting what they want? and if there is that way to fight them, have we started to find it? joining us now is msnbc news terrorist analyst evan coleman. thanks for being here. >> thank you very much. >> i know that in your research you follow online al qaeda and jihadist discussion forums very closely. is it their goal now in 2010 to get us to fight them on their terms? >> yeah, i think it's called al qaeda's end game. that's the problem is we keep looking in the short term what they're trying to do to us right now but we're not trying to understand how this fits into their larger philosophy.

just a few days ago one of the participants on al qaeda's main discussion forum posted something online titled the cia has dug the grave of the americans in yemen. and basically what it was stating is that aside from the idea that the united states is now going to send troops to yemen and become embroiled in a conflict there, the other idea is that with a guy that meant nothing to al qaeda, abdulmutallab, someone who really is very easily replaceable from their context, they have managed to cause the entire tsa system to go into chaos. i mean, really chaos. they have caused us to throw up our hands in a frantic bid to try to stop people from bringing bombs on airplanes, smuggled in their underwear. the idea is that we can't do that. we cannot stop every single would-be terrorist from boarding an airplane. it's not going to work like that. it's exactly as president obama stated. it is a siege mentality that will not work. if you want to spend money

effectively you have to look at al qaeda's end game and that's trying to get the united states entangled in conflicts that we cannot win and spending billions of dollars to secure ourselves against shadowy threats that we can't see. and the reality is that one terrorist buried amongst millions of airline passengers is a needle in a hay stack. it is not something that we should expect to find with tsa regulations. we could hope to find it but we shouldn't expect to find it. the way we should expect to find terrorists is by sinking money into doing proper intelligence work. and obviously not the kind of intelligence work that our agencies have been up to lately. >> evan, it is because al qaeda has been so overt about what you say, its end game, it is easy to identify what it is they want us to do, what american stra teenl ik mistakes are in terms of responding to terrorism. it's not easy to identify the exact right things to do. obviously increasing our intelligence capacity is something that every american wishes for but what are the

concrete things that we could be doing differently that we're not doing and why aren't we taking steps that would increase our intelligence capacity? >> well, first of all, going into iraq was probably a bad idea. however, as a result of the war in iraq we have learned a couple lessons about what works and what doesn't in terms of driving people away from al qaeda. one of the things that really helps is to highlight the fact that al qaeda is killing muslim civilians by the hundreds. far more muslim civilians die at the hands of al qaeda than americans do. but that fact seems to have escaped people. that's not something our state department is really impressing upon people. the idea that al qaeda's main enemy are moderate muslims, you know, those are the people al qaeda is really going after. frankly we've done a terrible job getting our message out. we've done a terrible job managing what the purpose of this conflict is. and as a result, we are perceived in the muslim world as crusaders as people who are coming in to occupy muslim lands

and that's why you see young muslims going out and joining these organizations. even independently. >> evan, specifically on that issue i was struck today that the president brought up that exact issue talking about the fact that al qaeda offers nothing to the muslim world and that they have killed so many innocent muslims. he brought that up immediately adjacent to a point about how he is directing american security against the threat of lone terrorists, of, he said, to address the unique challenges posed by lone recruits. what's the connection between those two things, the idea of al qaeda in the muslim world not being a friend or offering any realistic vision to muslims and lone terrorist recruits being the threat to us now? >> the answer is that most people that are joining terrorist organizations today are not doing so because osama bin laden calls them on the telephone and says, come join us. that's not how it works. these guys are very angry and they've been mobilized by what they see on television and in al

qaeda propaganda. dells pit the fact they may be one person living in a community where no one else supports these ideals as a result of the internet and social networking forums these guys go online, find other people who share these beliefs. it becomes an echo chamber. after a while you have a group of people that honestly believe the united states, the primary goal of the united states, the u.s. military, is to kill muslims, for no reason. we are doing not very much to counter that message. if you want an answer as the proof to that, look at what happened at the cia base in afghanistan where seven cia employees lost their lives because of the fact that we trusted the wrong guy. someone who was going on the internet and proclaiming, i will never give up these beliefs. i will never surrender these beliefs. they are in my heart forever. he was saying this as of september of 2009. how come the cia didn't pick up on that? how come they didn't realize what those words meant?

that's how you stop terrorism. >> nbc news terrorist analyst evan kohlmann your insight on this is leagues ahead of what's going on across the main stream media tonight and multiple leagues ahead of the way most politicians talk about these issues. we're grateful to have you on the show. thanks. >> thanks, rachel. right on cue, leading republicans lined up to hammer president obama after his address on terrorism today. but it was a really old hammer seemed to be made out of sort of really chalky play-do. they're working on keeping the country safe in other words from president obama. later on the show, the world goes completely bonkers all at once. or is it just me? you be the judge.

you must be looking for motorcycle insurance. you're good. thanks. so is our bike insurance. all the coverage you need at a great price. hold on, cowboy. cool. i'm not done -- for less than a dollar a month, you also get 24/7 roadside assistance. ght on. yeah, vroom-vroom! sounds like you ran a 500. more like a 900 v-twin. excuse me. well, you're excused. the right insurance for your ride. w, that's progressive. call or click today. we are at war. we are at war against al qaeda, a far reaching network of violence and hatred that attacked us on 9/11, that killed nearly 3,000 innocent people, and that is plotting to strike

us again. >> he does not mean that just as a metaphor. in the past several days the part of that war that takes place in pakistan has gone into overdrive. in a typical week of this first year of the obama administration, cia drones might have hit targets in pakistan's tribal region one time or two times. but in the eight days since jordanian double agent blew up himself and seven cia officers and contractors at a cia base drones have reportedly struck pakistan five times. five times in a week. the latest attacks yesterday are said to have killed at least 17 militants. u.s. counterterrorism officials advise we shouldn't try to link the bombing of the cia base and the increase in drone strikes necessarily. that said, "the washington post" calls the five hits in a week, quote, extraordinarily unusual. and notes that they're occurring just across the border from where that cia bombing took place in khost. there are really newsworthy new developments on the bombing of that cia base. we have more ahead on that with

the nation's jeremy scahill who joins us next. when it comes to italian sauce, some people prefer this jar. but more people prefer this sauce. winner of the blind taste test. the sweet and savory taste of prego. it's in there.

every one of us, every american, every elected official can do our part. instead of giving in to cynicism and division let's move forward with the confidence and optimism and unity that defines us as a people. for now is not a time for partisanship but a time for citizenship. a time to come together and work together. with the seriousness of purpose that our national security demands. >> turns out not everyone is onboard with that. unless you think coming together in a nonpartisan way as citizens and showing seriousness of purpose about national security

means blaming the problem of terrorism on health care reform. really. an actual politician actually did that today. a united states senator in fact. senator cornyn chairman of the national republican senatorial committee put out this statement in response to the president today. he said, quote, i worry that the president's preoccupation with health care and other domestic issues has distracted him from what should be the fundamental role of our chief executive, keeping our nation and its citizenry safe from harm. in other words, hey, is there any way we can use this attempted terrorist attack as an excuse to try to stop health reform? is it too soon? today republicans from john cornyn to michael steele to pete the human siv hoekstra to john boehner to michelle bachman to mike rogers to little todd tea hart for crying out loud put out statements attacking president obama on terrorism. within moments of the president's remarks. as i said, john cornyn's statement used terrorism to argue against health reform. michael steele's statement said obama needs to recognize that terrorism is a threat.

because he doesn't? pete hoekstra's statement said he wants more intel released about fort hood. this come frg the guy who was too busy campaigning for governor in michigan to attend the congressional briefing on fort hood. john boehner's statement said the administration has reverted to a pre 9/11 mentality as evidenced by the obama administration trying the underpants bomber in civilian court. just like the bush administration did after 9/11. michelle bachman's statement said something i'm sorry to say was incomprehensible about lawyering up. mike rogers' statement said the obama administration isn't committed to defeating terrorism. and little todd teahart put out a statement saying janet napolitano should resign and it was god that stopped the underpants bomber. no, really. he said it was god who stopped the underpants bomber. and i'm quoting. were it not for an act of god, hundreds of lives would have been lost and our nation paralyzed. the time has come for secretary napolitano to immediately resign. did you notice there were no

ellipses there? that's just the way it went, that statement. that's really what he said. janet napolitano should resign and god gets a medal. you know, it's not like there were a ton of rational response frs the republican party i ignored in order to come up with this compilation. this was pretty much the response from the opposition party today to the president's announcement on terrorism. this is what they've got to offer. god did it. obama doesn't want to stop terrorism. when bush did what obama is doing i was okay with it. something inexplicable about lau lawyering up and can we stop health reform now? that is what they are offering on terrorism. the president is back to pretty rhetorical flour ishs about not being red states or blue states but being united in serious purpose to face the policy challenges of the united states. i hope he is not holding his breath. joining us now is the washington bureau chief of "mother jones" magazine, columnist for politics daily.com and my buddy. good to see you here.

>> good to see you rachel. >> what would have happened if democrats reacted to the shoe bomber back in 2001-2002 the way republicans have reacted to the underpants bomber? >> i think it's fair to say dick cheney would have arranged for secret trials and sent them all to gitmo. i mean, i remember those days. they didn't, the democrats did not respond this way, the way that republicans have responded for the last two weeks. i mean, no one doubted that george bush was serious about terrorism. maybe they doubted his policies and they became obsessed with iraq rather than al qaeda but, you know, yesterday liz cheney put out a statement. you remember liz cheney, seems to be the medium channelling her father, you know, it's time for the president to make defending the nation his top priority. now, how many weeks did president obama spend on getting afghanistan strategy organized? we may not like what he decided but it seemed to be a pretty much a top priority and in terms of those predator drone attacks hitting pakistan, he's overseeing far more of those than bush and cheney did in their last year in office.

so i mean they can keep making these rhetorical points because maybe they play on some old prejudices about democrats being weak on national security but they have no basis in fact. >> well, some of the not basis in fact is more pronounced than others. rudolph guiliani for example went on cnn last night and said that the shoe bombing happened before 9/11. and that explains the difference in approaches. a total lie and a weird one. peter king, jim demint and these guys keep saying president obama won't use the word "terrorism" which is also a total lie and a weird one. is there a cost ultimately to that? or does everybody just lie all the time in politics and even the flagrant ones don't count? >> people get away with these lies all the time. i think the cost is to the national discourse overall. these are serious issues and real issues. national security versus civil liberties. there is actually a case to be made about trying people as enemy combatants as oppose today keeping them in civil criminal

trials. i understand these are tough arguments. but we can't have them in a serious fashion and get to the best outcomes if you are throwing in weird lies like this. it shows that they're not really serious. if they want to engage there is plenty to engage on. there are questions about, you know, what to do with guantanamo and very hard to wrestle with issues but they're not serious. >> i have to tell you, david, without being snarky i despair over this. i despair over this because there are real fights to have over the response to terrorism. you know, there are real fights to have over health reform. what did we do? we followed the republicans' lead and spent all that time talking about death panels which is made up. >> government takeover. >> and on climate change. there are a lot of interesting ways to respond but instead climategate, all made up. following the republican framing into nonsense land. and we've ended up talking about stuff that is not real instead of talking about policy. i want to have policy fights. i don't want to fight with people who refuse to acknowledge

reality. >> michael steele put out a statement within half an hour of the president's speech today. he did not even take an hour to think about what would be the reasonable republican response. it was obviously ready to go before-hand. it shows, listen. these are questions for the united states and whether it's afghanistan or fighting al qaeda and others, these are big things. if you can't put an hour's worth of brain power into figuring out what you should do maybe actually you could say once in a while, well i kind of agree with what the president said or disagree with this or agree with that without making everything a partisan attack. i know it's his job to be partisan but if all we do is see things through that prism we won't reach the answers we need to for the big challenges. >> i am totally okay with partisan attacks. i love partisanship. i think it helps. what i don't like is when we don't agree on the facts at hand. the fact is you know what? the shoe bomber was after 9/11. i'm sorry. put it on a calendar. that is not a fight. >> you can't do anything about that. there is no response whan it does is it muddies up the waters

and, unfortunately, there is an audience out there that will follow whether rudolph guiliani, michael steele, tiny tiahart? hard to say. i admire you for that. there are people who follow this and believe in death panels and i think there is a certain degree of exploitation here. because i do think that rudolph guiliani, michael steele, people in leadership roles should know better. >> we should maybe embarrass them into knowing better in public. i'll keep trying. >> that's your job. >> david, really happy to see you. thank you for coming in. >> my pleasure. >> david corn of course is the washington bureau chief of the great "mother jones" magazine. all right. so some of the unexpected fallout from the cia base being bombed is that congress is apparently going to launch an investigation into what blackwater was doing on that base when the bombing happened. since the cia said they had cut their ties with blackwater. this is a sleeper of a story that hasn't really broken through yet. you can read it next week in the papers or you can see it here on this tv show next with jeremy

scahill. later the brave new world of three dimensional television brought to you in two dimensions. set your mind blower to stun. it's coming up. if you don't always like the taste of vegetables. i'll be right back. ok. good thing v8 v-fusion juice gives you a serving of vegetables hidden by a serving of fruit. v8. what's your number? and now i know without enough, shakes off dry winter skin with 2 separate ribbons. the white ribbon that cleanses and the body butter ribbon that moisturizes continuously leaving skin satiny smooth.

goodbye dry winter skin. oh, that's kyle. he aced his fifth grade geography class. you see, now that we're using fedex to ship globally, i have to learn all the countries again, so i brought in kyle as a consultant. did you know that we have customers in czechoslovakia? actually, it's called the czech republic. yes, kyle, you're a lifesaver. without kyle, i never would have heard of that new country called buttheadistan. shh.

[ male announcer ] we understand. you want to grow internationally. fedex serves over 220 countries and territories.

we're going to find them and if they're hiding we'll smoke them out. smoke them out, get them running so we can get them. >> they didn't get them. more than eight years after 9/11, we got a graphic, shocking reminder that pursuing

the top leadership of al qaeda is still on america's to-do list. a suicide bomber who was a jordanian double agent killed himself and seven cia officers and contractors on a cia base in afghanistan on december 30th. that double agent was reportedly only at that base because he claimed to have information about how the united states could finally get al qaeda's number two the guy you see in all the tapes the star of the al qaeda av club. we learned last week among the seven people described as cia personnel killed in that bombing were two contractors employed by blackwater. nbc news has reported that those blackwater contractors were not acting as security guards when they were killed. that bit of reporting is raising some eyebrows because last month a cia spokesman told reporters, quote, at this time blackwater is not involved in any cia operations other than in a security or support role. if just two weeks later two blackwater guys were killed at a

cia base while not acting in a security or support role, it would seem that that cia statement about what blackwater is doing for the cia now was not true. now jeremy scahill of the nation is reporting that the chair, congresswoman jan schakowsky is launching an investigation into what the blackwater employees were doing at the base that day and what else we and congress don't know about what blackwater is still being paid by the u.s. government to do. joining us now is jeremy scahill author of "blackwater the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army." thanks very much for being here. >> thank you. >> when word first came in of the attack on the cia base on december 30th at 6:44 p.m. that day you tweeted, reattack on cia base in afghanistan. mark my words. contractors were killed. how did you know? >> i heard it from sources that from within the military and intelligence community that told me that there were blackwater contractors among the dead that

day. they were still confirming that it was blackwater and not another company so when i tweeted it that's why i didn't specify from what company but i did know at that point at least u.s. intelligence was of the understanding that blackwater guys were there that day. >> what are these contractors doing? and why are contractors involved in work like this despite cia assertions to the contrary? >> i just got off the phone before we went on the air with representative schakowsky and she has already started her investigation. it sounds like she's making some headway though she can't talk about the headway she is making because it's classified and she is on the intelligence committee. she is going after this issue right now. let's remember that this wasn't just some cia outpost in canada. this is an outpost responsible for hunting the highest of the high value targets and to have two blackwater personnel there and i can also report i understand there was a third blackwater operative there who was injured in the blast, to have three blackwater operatives there when this golden goose as he was portrayed of an asset

came in there, shows just how close blackwater remains to the epicenter of some of the most sensitive intelligence operations. now, representative schakowsky raises the issue, even if they were just providing security there, don't we have other people besides blackwater, besides eric prince's men? we have the most powerful military in the world. why do we need to rely on these people with indictments coming down, arrests for murder happening today for killing civilians in afghanistan? why do they keep using these guys? the fact they were killed there shows just how close blackwater remains to the epicenter of sensitive operations. >> for all of the problems about blackwater doing such intrinsic governmental functions and also acting lawlessly, all of the things you've documented in your book and reporting and that we've reported, doesn't it seem like things got qualitatively worse for blackwater once their founder eric prince went on the record in a magazine and said, hey, i'm cia asset and here are a bunch of black ops i've been involved in?

didn't that sort of indict the whole company in terms of its ability to be involved in super secret activities? >> right. eric prince claims that after 9/11 he set up a secret training camp at his house in virginia where he trained these hit squads that went in dark into countries meaning they didn't even notify the cia station chief in those countries. one of the operations that prince's men are believed to have participated in was an assassination plot against a german citizen in hamburg and they went in there dark and were hunting this guy down and actual government officials called off the pulling of the trigger. the german prosecutors now have launched an investigation into that. not only is eric prince causing problems for his company but he's also now creating a situation where the u.s. government is going to have to answer to the german government what the heck blackwater was doing running a round hamburg, germany trying to bump off one of their citizens. >> i'm glad to hear you're still in contact with congresswoman

schakowsky on this. we'll try to get her on the show as soon as she feels she is able to talk about this investigation. >> i think eric prince should take brit hume's advice and seek christianity in this moment of crisis. >> i -- i couldn't possibly comment. he's a christian crusader already. that's fine. he's got it covered. >> thank you. appreciate it. for all you astrologers out there the planet mercury has been in retro grade since december 26th. if you believe that sort of thing it's important you may thereby have insight into why everything seems to be going bonkers right now. we went to put together ms. info for tonight's show i swear there were so many weird stories one right after the other that i started to become a believer. turns out i am an aires. but now i'm feeling a little irregular, sluggish. that was me. but now i'm eating better plus activia every morning. i feel great. activia with bifidus regularis helps regulate your digestive system in two weeks. worked for your mom. take the activia challenge. mmm. this will be easy.

it works, or it's free. ♪ activia [ tires screech ] an accident doesn't have to slow you down. from new car replacement and guaranteed repairs to 24-hour claims assistance, we do all we can to help you move on.

liberty mutual auto insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? [ thunder and cracks of lightning ] whatever i did, my digestive upsets came back. but then came align with bifantis. it helps build and maintain a healthy digestive system to restore my natural digestive balance and protect against occasional digestive upsets. align brings peace to my digestive system... ...and the money back guarantee brings peace to me. we give you peace of mind. i have diabetes like a lot of us here, so we understand. compassion. patience. you'll find it anytime you call. our customers say we're number one. plus, they're grateful we're located in the us, where we also manufacture... the accu-chek aviva meters and test strips. americans caring for americans. that makes us proud.

accu-chek customer care born in the usa. still ahead if you think hd tv is neat, kent jones will be along with something even cooler, he claims. stay tuned to hold kent accountable. first a few holy mackerel stories in today's news. by holy mackerel i mean what is going on? perhaps people are always doing inexplicable, insane things in public that sort of make it into the news and we're only now just paying attention or this whole

mercury and retro grade thing is for real. consider the evidence. last night a guy on a flight from miami intended for detroit was physically removed from the plane before takeoff because he threatened to, quote, kill all the jews. the man was charged with threats against a public ser venlt, disorderly conduct, and resisting an officer. he was also tasered twice. authorities say he never posed any actual security threat. the fbi say they are leaving the case to local law enforcement. weird enough. right? well then there was the portland, oregon to hawaii flight which had to be escorted back to portland by two f-15 fighter jets from the north american aerospace defense command. the reason that happened is because a passenger allegedly, quote, handed a flight attendant a disturbing note and refused to let go of his carry-on bag. he has since been released from custody and there is no known terrorism link in that case either. then there's the announcement that on january 3rd a tsa agent at lax was arrested because once

off duty he was acting strangely and kept saying, i am god. i'm in charge. the police apparently disagreed. but wait. that's not all. there's more. over the last couple of days there have also been world incidents involving the protection of the obama administration. on saturday a man posing as a secret service agent was able to get past security at the department of health and human services. he was not stopped until he reached the offices of health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius. the man was known to agency officials. in fact, there were photographs of him at the department along with the explicit instruction to, see this guy? don't let him in. because last year he had made calls to hhs demanding to speak to the secretary or someone in charge. the man was arrested on tuesday. he is being charged with impersonating a secret service agent. but at least he had all his clothes on when he feels arrested. unlike a man arrested by secret service agents yesterday. a naked man jogging in january

near the white house. promptly arrested. a spokesman for the secret service said, quote, he wasn't yelling or protesting. just going for a jog. he was apprehended, naked though he was. naked though he was was actually in the quote from the secret service. and finally, the madest of today's mad, mad, mad stories was apparently scripted by the great nora efron. do you remember how all of newark airport was recently locked down sunday due to a security breach? a man snuck past security, causing the whole place to screech to a halt for six hours. flights canceled, and delayed, and just generally mucked up. well, it turns out that the man who blew past security seemingly unaware that his actions could shut down the entire airport and terrify thousands and cost millions? he was just trying to get a good-bye kiss, really. not joking. take a look. this is the airport. the airport security tape from newark. here he is. walking right past security all in the name of getting one last smooch. yes. never in my wildest news dreams

did i think i would be reporting on national security while retelling the basic plot line from "love, actually." mercury retro grade. i believe. with new marie callender's home-style creations. marie callender's home-style creations -- a little touch of home for lunch. [ male announcer ] becky loves marie callender's home-style creations. but where does she find them? not in the freezer section. that's why becky uses gps. not that kind. go to the pasta or soup aisle to find marie callender's home-style creations. keep up the good work, becky. and all of these. paid invoices go right here. bang! - that hasn't been paid yet. - what? - huh-uh. - all my business information is just a phone call away-- to my wife... who's not answering. announcer: there's a better way to run your business. intuit quickbooks online organizes your business in one place. it easily creates invoices and helps you stay on top

of your business anytime, anywhere. this is way better. get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. medication to lower your bad cholesterol but your good cholesterol and triglycerides are still out of line? then you may not be seeing the whole picture. ask your doctor about trilipix. statin to lower bad cholesterol, along with diet, adding trilipix can lower fatty triglycerides and raise good cholesterol to help improve all three cholesterol numbers. trilipix has not been shown to prevent heart attacks or stroke more than a statin alone. trilipix is not for everyone, including people with liver, gallbladder, or severe kidney disease, or nursing women. tell your doctor about all the medicines you take and if you are pregnant or may become pregnant. blood tests are needed before and during treatment to check for liver problems. contact your doctor if you develop unexplained muscle pain or weakness, as this can be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. this risk may be increased when trilipix is used with a statin. if you cannot afford your medication, call 1-866-4-trilipix for more information.

trilipix. there's more to cholesterol. get the picture. are you ready for television in 3-d? we're going to do the end of the show in 3-d in 2-d in a minute. i swear. national car rental knows i'm picky. so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro.

okay. so big news. the kill the gays bill in uganda

might now just be the imprison the gays for life bill. today the president of uganda, a member of the secretive religious group known as the family famous for operating the c street house in washington announced he is not in favor of the execution part of what's become known as his country's kill the gays bill. of course the bill also calls for life imprisonment for gay people and he is not denouncing that part. the president's ethics minister is also reportedly a member of the family though a man named bob hunter from the family earlier this week denied that on our show. he says he is okay with taking it out of the gays bill because after all they can just cure the gays instead telling the ap today quote the death penalty is likely to be removed. the president doesn't believe in killing gays. i also don't believe in it. i think gays can be counseled and they stop the bad habit. the idea that gay people can be cured is a relatively recent import to uganda.

a conference on the subject was convened by the people who helped write the bill last spring. that conference featured antigay quacktivists from the united states who testified people could be cured of the gays and also testified about how evil the gays are. at the box turtle bulletin online they posted individual dwloe week gathered by the organization and the ex-gay watch. they posted this video of one of these american activists a man named scott lively speaking in uganda at that conference earlier this year so we can learn all the kinds of things antigay american activists have been preaching abroad. the man your beat to see admits to having met with legislators in uganda to discuss what became the kill the, imprison the gays for life bill. >> these are men with very little restraint. they have very little sense of mercy. no nurturing aspect to them. these are men, well, these were the nazis.

these are men who don't have anything. they are so far from they're se mass murderers. they're sociopaths. there's no mercy at all. there's no nurturing, no caring about anybody else. this is the kind of person that it takes to run a gas chamber, right, or to do a mass murder, like the rwandan stuff probably involve these guys. >> blaming gays for the rwandan genocide. not long after he told them about that about gay people and not long after he told them all that, the erstwhile kill the gays bill was born. that man named scott lively. he's not associated with the family. the reason anti-gay activists and evangelicals like him have such huge access is in part because of the deep involvement by the family which has years

cultivated ties between american conservatives and ugandan politicians. joining us jeff sharlet, author of the book "the family, the secret fundamentalism at the heart of american power." thanks for coming on the show. you've learn something new about senator jim inhofe, about his trip to uganda in 2004. could you tell us what that is? >> senator inhofe described his travels to uganda, his adoption of the nation as a kind of informal process that took place through the family. just this week, i obtained a budget for the family's work in africa identifying jim inhofe as the designated point man selected to work with 11 african leaders, most of them presidents, including the president of uganda, museveni, president of rwanda, mugabe and worked with them to help set their nations on a jesus footing on every level from economy to morals and everything.

there's a budget. there's money. there's support staff. it's a very formal effort that he's undertaking. >> he's traveling there as a united states senator but with all of this monetary and other support from the family. >> exactly. and the interesting thing about senator inhofe is that he -- within the evangelical circles even boasted of this as we discussed before on the show, saying i used my status as a u.s. senator to open doors over there. as one family man, bob hunter, who was on the show the other day, he explained to me that those senators who are traveling with the family -- i had made the mistake of saying mr. hunter travels at the behest of the u.s. government. he corrected me. he said, no, senators travel at the behest of me. i use them as bait. i use them as tools to reach those in power and then we can go about trying to get them on this jesus footing. >> so it's not that the family is at the beck and call the u.s. government but the u.s. government is at the beck and call of the family? >> i stand corrected. >> let me clarify something that

bob hunter brought up. i asked him about the ethics minister in uganda, boturo and he's quoted as saying homosexuals can forget about human rights and a lot of the most abhorrent quotes around this kill the gays bill. when i asked hunter about him, he said there's lots of people who have some sort of affiliation with the family but he essentially denied he had any idea who boturo was or he was a member of the family. what can you tell me? >> he said literally, quote, i don't know the guy, which puzzled me, because mr. hunter several times made reference to a transcript of a conversation we have. we both have the transcript in which we discussed boturo. he explained boture yoe inherited his position if the family. the position of ethics minister was created for the family. the cabinet level position was created for the family his predecessor. he tried to distance himself, say we didn't choose boture yoe he kind of inherited that position. but of course there he is and

he's in fact traveled overseas representing uganda at family events elsewhere around the world. >> i also, jeff, as long as you're here -- i know you're going to write something up that we're going to post to our website to clarify and refute some of the specific claims made against you by bob hunter. but let me just ask you briefly. he said that you admitted to him that you have -- you have done inaccurate reporting about the family, that you denounce your own reporting in your own book. let me ask you to report. >> i'm just puzzled because we had a conversation. we both taped it. we both have the tape. we both have the transcript. i didn't denounce my book. i didn't denounce my reporting. it was just a complete reversal, a topsy-turvy characterization of our conversation. and of the political role of the family. >> okay. well, i look forward to you posting that on the website. we'll announce on the air when you've done that. i feel like i'm in the middle of this big fight but it's

fascinating. jeff sharlet of course a contributing editor to harper magazine and author of "the family," which you should rooef read. coming up on the countdown on the refreshing nature of a president who takes responsibility. next on this show, we'll take you into another dimension. stay with us let's make sure the health care bill is as strong as possible. under the house plan, we'll be offered good coverage at work. and we won't pay a tax on our health benefits. if you're self-employed or between jobs, you'll be able to afford insurance. and you can keep the benefits you have now. we're at the finish line, tell the president and congress, choose wisely, get it right for us.

- ( whirring ) - oh, you know what? let me call you back. announcer: you don't drink every time you smoke. yet you smoke every time you drink. drinking and smoking don't have to go together. re-learn life without cigarettes, free, at becomeanex.org. a new way to think about quitting. to get out of those tubs? when we want. when we're in the mood. it's our choice. announcer: today, guys with erectile dysfunction can be ready with another dosing option from cialis. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven

low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment is right. so relax and take your time. tell your doctor about your medical condition and all medications and ask if you're healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. don't drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision stop taking cialis and call your doctor right away. announcer: today you have options, 36-hour cialis or cialis for daily use. ask your doctor about cialis today so when the moment is right, you can be ready.